Ezine 192 - PowerShell 2.0 Out-GridView
PowerShell 2.0 Out-GridView
Out-GridView provides a better way for PowerShell to present tabulated
information. It works particularly well for displaying data returned
by get-Service or get-Process.
PowerShell Out-GridView - New in Version 2.0
♣
There
are general cmdlets such as get-Help and get-member that you need to master
when you perform basic PowerShell research. And there are numerous
dedicated cmdlets such as restart-Computer that you need to understand
before you can complete a specialist tasks However,
Out-Grid is in a class of it's own, not because of its technical
sophistication, but just because it will give you that 'ah
ha' moment. As a bonus, the verb 'Out' will remind us of other handy
members of the output family such as out-File and out-Printer.
If you have not seen out-GridView before it could be because this is a
new cmdlet in PowerShell Version 2.0. As with any new cmdlet,
before we put out-GridView to work it's worth calling for help so that we
can check the syntax and seek out interesting parameters.
get-Help out-GridView -full
Note 1: Because I want to see examples, I
rarely use get-Help without appending the -full switch. In this case
help alerted me to sorting the columns by simply double-clicking their
heading. In addition, it was only by reading the help file that I
realized the benefit of using the 'Search' box as a filter.
Note 2: The only problem I have encountered with
out-GridView is spelling the noun. Grid View is wrong, and
omitting View is another fatal sin, Out-Grid does not work. Remember
it's one word, gridview as in Out-GridView.
get-Service | out-GridView
Note 1: Please remember the pipe (|), especially
when you
get too ambitious, and something goes wrong with your complex experiment.
Note 2: You can also copy the data
displayed by out-GridView and paste it
into Excel. Numeric data often benefits from further manipulation by
the spreadsheets functions. I find that the old keyboard shortcuts such as Ctrl + a are handy
for selecting all the rows.
This example illustrates the benefits of adding extra PowerShell code
in order to control the headings. For example, we want the name of
each process in the first column.
get-Process | select-Object -property name, workingSet, peakWorkingSet |
out-GridView
Note 1: Remember that you can sort on any of
the columns simply by double-clicking.
Note 2: It surprised me to discover that you can
also drag and drop the columns to re-order the data. Resizing the columns
works intuitively, just like Excel.
Note 3: Out-GridView has a search box that you
don't normally get with get-Process. One use of this Search
capability is to filter
the data.
Example 3: Out-GridView Show in Groups
Another surprising feature of out-GridView is how we can group items. For
example, with get-Service you can aggregate the services that are stopped. Just right-click on the heading and see if it supports 'Show in
Groups', see screenshot to the right. All in all, out-Grid means
that you can manipulate data quickly on the fly, this saves having to
revisit the code and changing the properties or adjusting the grouping
syntax.
Guy
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Example 4: Import XML Files
One more pleasant revelation, if you import an XML file then you can
improve the way the data displays by piping its
contents into out-GridView.
Assuming you have a suitable xml file called services.xml, try this:
Import-CliXML C:\PShell\services.xml | Out-GridView
Note 1: I don't want you to go away thinking
that out-GridView is only suitable for get-Service, it's just that all
Windows computers have services, and their data shows off this display
cmdlet in it's best light.
While out-GridView is easy to understand, it maybe that you already know
other members of the 'Output' family of cmdlets. My point is that if you have
already
used out-File then you will know what to expect from out-GridView.
On the other hand, if this is all new territory, then you can apply
knowledge of out-GridView to out-Printer.
Results:
Out-Default
Out-File
Out-GridView
Out-Host
Out-Null
Out-Printer
Out-String
Summary of PowerShell's Out-GridView
PowerShell v 2.0 has a lovely new cmdlet called out-GridView, what this does
is take the output from another command and present it in a new window where
the data is displayed in an interactive table. Take the time to
research the 'Search' box and discover how to 'Show in Groups'.
If you are looking for handy network utilities, try some of the free downloads at
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See more Microsoft PowerShell file tutorials:
• PowerShell Home •
Add-Content •
Get-Content •
Set-Content •
Test-Path •
-recurse
•
Files •
PowerShell Registry •
PowerShell ItemProperty •
Compare-object
•
Get-Credential •
Windows
PowerShell
Please email me if you have a better example script. Also please report any factual mistakes, grammatical errors or broken links, I will be happy to correct the fault.
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